In 1990 Senior Pastor Adam Hamilton launched a small congregation with a handful of people meeting in a humble funeral parlor. Today the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (COR) in Leawood, Kan., is one of the largest and most influential mainline denominational churches in the world. With campuses throughout the Kansas City metro area, the church ministers to over 20,000 members, with weekend attendance averaging around 13,000.
By 2002 the congregation had outgrown its second sanctuary and master plans for a final, permanent sanctuary were being developed to accommodate future growth and development. More than simply building a structure to accommodate more seating, the leadership of COR envisioned a sacred space that would share the Gospel through architecture and would feature an incredible stained glass window communicating the entire history of the Christian faith. Their dream was to create an environment where people around the world could come and experience God for generations to come.
Finding a balance
For the technical arts ministry at COR, addressing the challenges of creating a great AVL experience in that kind of space began with by embracing the overall vision of the church. “It’s a purpose bigger than any individual,” says Dave Pullin, director of technical arts at Church of the Resurrection. “Everything we do is aimed at reaching non-religious and nominally religious people, so we decide worship style, series and strategic priorities based on connecting with people who haven’t experienced God.”
“Everything we do is aimed at reaching non-religious and nominally religious people, so we decide worship style, series and strategic priorities based on connecting with people who haven’t experienced God.”
Pullin’s journey to becoming the tech director at COR is a major factor in his commitment to the church’s mission. “I started off in music, and when I moved to Kansas City in 2001 I started attending and got involved in college ministry,” he says. “After that I started leading worship, went part-time, then full-time.”He continues, “We were in the process of building our interim sanctuary and renovating the old one, and they realized they needed to expand their technical staff. I spent two or three years running mid-week events, and eventually the last 10 years as tech director.”
As a part of Church of the Resurrection for such an extended period of time, Pullin was able to experience the development of the vision for the church’s new worship environment. “There are places in the country and around the world where, through the architecture and design, you’re immediately transported to a space where the separation between earth and heaven is so thin that you can get a glimpse of heaven,” Pullin continues. “There are spaces like that around the world that when you walk into [them] you just know [they’re] a spiritual place. We wanted the space itself to be a testimony.”
With architecture receiving that kind of priority and attention to detail, it was clear that the tech arts ministry would need to be a part of the very early planning phases of the final 3,500-seat sanctuary. “We knew this was going to be a challenging project requiring coordination between multiple design elements. Tech was going to be one of the more difficult ones,” stated Pullin. “We wanted the majesty that comes with having this type of space. That means tall ceilings, a lot of hard surfaces and a lot of natural light. As soon as you bring those elements in you know that acoustics are going to be a challenge.” Yet Pullin reports, “We were brought into the whole process pretty early, and we had the foresight to partner with the architects right away. We identified strategic partners like audio/video consultants, acousticians, and lighting designers, as well.”COR does “full-on, rock-style music as well as pure orchestral-style music, so our acoustic requirements were very specific,” Pullin says. “We were also trying to figure out how to make sure spoken word was intelligible. It was a challenge, and I think the entire team we assembled did an excellent job managing the competing priorities.”
Enter Light
Early in the design phase it was decided that the centerpiece of the new sanctuary design would be a massive stained-glass window consisting of 161 panels and measuring 37 feet tall by 100 feet wide. “The stained-glass window is the focal point in the entire room,” asserts Pullin. “So how do you supplement that with visuals? What we’ve come to [realize] is that the window is part of our palette. We’ve learned through trial and error what supplements the window and what competes with it. We’ve learned that people will still engage with the video screens, and they’ve become a more creative element as time has gone on.
”To incorporate video into the environment, an LED screen with a 7,416x1,080 resolution extends the entire length beneath the stained-glass window. Pullin continues, “The Absen LED panels, which were something our AVL designers recommended based on value and customer experience, have worked extremely well. We are still learning and exploring the potential uses of Christie’s Pandora’s Box video mapping software, which has opened up a complete new realm of possibilities in how we use video.”
Custom Sound Solutions
“Recognizing we needed to control the acoustics as much as possible, we utilized ACS’s acoustic enhancement system to add some electronic reverberation to the room,” says Pullin. “Although there’s more late-arriving reflections in the room than we had originally anticipated, the ACS control supplements the orchestra so well that we barely have to run them through the PA.” “The primary acoustical challenge came with minimizing the reflections directly from the arrays,” which led the team [toward] EAW’s Anya arrays [as an ideal solution] for the unique challenges of the space,” shared Pullin. “The directional steering the Anya’s provide have marked the difference between success and failure in this room, because of the high ceilings and so many reflective services.”
During the design process, Pullin and his tech team (above left) discovered the Klang 3D in-ear mxing system and called the company for a demo. “The 360-directional sourcing, which provides a surround-sound type of imaging, was a game changer. It performed way better than we were expecting,” Pullin says.
As part of the new installation Pullin and his team chose to move forward with a Digico SD10 sound console for the FOH and broadcast audio positions, with a Waves server installed at FOH. “We switched over to Digico in 2009 because we preferred how they sounded compared to other manufacturers, they are very user-friendly, and the high level of customer service is unprecedented,” states Pullin. “We were pretty adamant through value-engineering talks that we stayed with them moving forward into our new spaces.”For audio monitoring on stage Pullin and his team discovered Klang 3D in-ear mixing as a part of their research process. “We still use Aviom for our backline and in many of our venues, but during the installation process Klang did a demo for us,” Pullin says. “The 360-directional sourcing, which provides a surround-sound type of imaging, was a game changer. It performed way better than we were expecting.”
Rounding it Out
Fortunately for the team, selecting the right lighting console was an easy choice. “We’ve got a High End Systems HOG 4 console, which has kept us consistent with all of our Flying Pig systems at all of our campuses,” states Pullin. “It keeps it easier when training volunteers. They are robust consoles that do what we need, are easy to program, and extremely reliable.”“Natural light is a big deal in this sanctuary, so we didn’t really have a ton of intelligent lighting fixtures. We have 16 Vari-Lite VL4000 intelligent spots, but we lean more towards conventional ellipsoidals for our stage lighting,” said Pullin.For video switching the Church of the Resurrection selected the Ross Acuity switcher for both IMAG and broadcast applications. Pullin continues, “It’s almost more than we need, but in terms of the different sources we output to, including IMAG, campus broadcast and signage, it works well for us. We’ve always been very impressed with Ross.”To effectively capture the broad spectrum of live experiences in the new sanctuary, the team chose the Sony HDC-1700 system cameras. “Camera placement was a concern in that we needed operated cameras, but did not want them to be a distraction in the space,” Pullin stats. “So the combination of operated and PTZ cameras made for a versatile, yet discrete solution. We decided to go with Sony after a comparison process and discovered that Sony’s product simply out-performed everyone else, and we’ve been quite pleased with how they’ve taken care of us.”
Renovated Space
With the new sanctuary opened for Easter 2017, Church of the Resurrection began the process of renovating its previous 3,000-seat auditorium. The space will be designed for multiple purposes focused on building community. “It also hosts several of our alt-worship kinds of experiences,” states Pullin. “It’s going to be a multi-use space with a full production setup. It will resemble more of a black box-style production utilizing more produced visuals with theatrical lighting. It will be more of a creative breeding ground for us, and we’re excited about it.” Beyond the excitement of the new AVL opportunities, the tech arts ministry is also planning for the additional logistical and staffing challenges presented by this new space. “Whenever you have a new multipurpose room, scheduling is an important thing,” shares Pullin. “Programming tends to ramp up to meet the space available, so you have to determine whether you ramp up support in anticipation of high-use volume, or if you wait until the demand is there. It’s a gamble. You don’t want to staff up too early, but you don’t want to staff up too late either if you’re trying prevent burn out.”
Projecting into the Future
For the COR tech arts ministry, the focus moving into the future remains clearly on the mission of the church. “We are constantly trying to redefine how we reach non- and nominally religious people,” states Pullin. “Not only does that involve decisions about programming and worship engagement, but we’ve found that tech is a great front door for people to get involved in the church.”
“We’re always striving to be better. How can we increase communications between our teams? Video can become disconnected from audio, and audio from lighting, so how do we increase that collaboration? Excellence doesn’t mean perfection, but we can strive for excellence, which is doing the best you can with what you have. That’s what I’m constantly trying to build into our entire team.”Pullin closes, “We talk a lot about why we’re here. We want to build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians. That purpose statement is at the top of every agenda. It’s a purpose bigger than myself. That’s what I feel the church is meant to be.”
